Igor Witkowski was plodding along as a low level editor of Polish technical magazines when he was allegedly contacted in 1997 by an unnamed Polish intelligence agent, who let him read a transcript of postwar interviews with war criminal and former Nazi SS officer Jakob Sporrenberg. Sporrenberg unsuccessfully tried to stave off his execution with fanciful tales of top secret Nazi weapons programs he'd been privy to. He told his interviewers of a mysterious high-tech machine he called "The Bell" that was capable of "vortex compression" and "magnetic field separation." Witkowski wrote it all up in an obscure Polish-language book called The Truth About The Wonder Weapon that was promptly ignored.

Nominally mainstream Britishjournalist Nick Cook latched onto Witkowski's story and retold it in his 2002 book The Hunt for Zero Point, suggesting it was anecdotal evidence that the U.S. government has been working on Nazi anti-gravity technology in secret for the last 50 years.[1] Fringe UFOconspiracy theory cranks such as Joseph P. Farrell quickly joined the party like musicians riffing on a new melody. They claimed "The Bell" supposedly emitted radiation that killed 60 Nazi scientists and could be used to "see into the past". Hitler supposedly ordered the device be taken to South America on a U-Boat at the end of World War II. Or Antarctica. Or the Americans captured it and moved it to the USA, where it was used to power a UFO that landed in Kecksburg, PA. Or it's hidden somewhere in Area 51.[2]

Die Glocke has also worked its way into pop culture, being featured in video games like Call of Duty and TV programs like Ancient Aliens. It's just one more batshit notion clogging the minds of history-challenged American teens.[3] Which could be what the Nazis, known for their sardonic sense of humor, intended for it all along.